I dropped my chin into my neck, mouthed,Fuck it,then stormed toward the door.
Loren still lounged there.
He was lit with another flash of lightning as thunderrattled the house, and he was hot even with spooky lighting.He was also nowwatching me with open interest, but I didn’t take the time to enjoy it or doanything about it.
I swept past him.
“Maxine!Where are you going?”Dad-not Dad shouted.
I didn’t answer.
But I wasn’t going to ramble around a humongous houselooking for the grooms when the horses were fifty yards away from my person andI knew where the goddamn stables were.
I had no clue how to drive a carriage, but if ScarlettO’Hara could drive one, by God, I could too.
I stomped out into the rain, and immediately regretted mydecision, not only considering my updo was instantly ruined and it had takenIdina a million years to curl and arrange my hair that morning before we leftthe inn where we’d spent the night last night (I would never take electricityfor granted again).But because a monsoon even in Disney Come to Life was nojoke.
However, I was rolling, and there was no going back now.
“Maxine!”I heard yelled over the rain and wind.
And it wasn’t Dad-not-Dad.
It was Loren.
I was going to look over my shoulder at him when, instead, Istopped dead because his fingers wrapped around my upper arm pulled me to ahalt.
“Get in the house,” he ordered.
I blinked up at him through the rain.“I’m taking care ofthe horses.”
“Get in the house,” he repeated.
I pulled at my arm.“The horses need to be taken to thestables.”
He dipped his face right in mine, like,an inch away,and I didn’t have a chance to process how sexy his lashes were when they werespiky with wet as he barked, “Get in thegodsdamnedhouse!”
Oh no he didn’t.
I yanked my arm from his grip.“Don’t tell me what to do!”
I then turned, and as fast as my tight skirt would allow me,I ran toward the carriage.
This was not fast, and I was probably moving like a geisha,so, unsurprisingly, he caught up with me.
When he did, what he didn’t do was drag me to the house.
He picked me up.
Yes, me and my rather generous ass.
He then pretty much tossed me high into the driver’s seat ofthe carriage.
My hip banged against it (no worries, the seat was padded),and I nearly fell to my knees on the floor.
I did not because Loren was up after me, his arm slicedaround my stomach, he hauled me around and deposited my ass in the seat.
He then sat next to me, nabbed the reins, shouted, “Hee-yah!”while he flicked them, and the horses were sodanged ready tonotbe in the freezing, driving rain, they boltedforward.
